Dear friends, I would like to share with you my opinion about a book from Zig Ziglar "See You at the Top". It is a motivational book. It reminds me some other motivational books from Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and other authors. There are many inspirational quotes and stories from different fields (such as sales, history, politics, and sport) in this book. Some of them resonate with legal profession, and not just because the title of this book sounds like a popular phrase we hear in American movies "See you in court!" when two or more people quarrel, have angry arguments and try to frighten each other in emotional way. You may be surprised but this book reminded me criminalistics textbooks.
For example, Ziglar writes much how to set and achieve personal and professional goals. His sayings are:
"A goal properly set is halfway reached".
"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win".
"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."
These Ziglar quotes give understanding the importance of planning. It has significant meaning in the criminal procedure because it's important to have a plan for future investigative actions. This plan must be in written form in all criminal cases according to Ukrainian subordinate legislation. So, every criminal investigator has an obligation to draw up the plan. But many of them ignore this.
In some cases I represented the victims of the crimes. They complained to the police (militia) about the crimes. Some of them even named the criminals. All the investigators had to do was making the plan of investigation and when enforcement the scheduled investigative actions. But they did nothing. I appealed this negligence to the court. In court room I asked about the plan for investigation the crime. And what do you suppose the investigators said? They had no plan in written form! They could show nothing. Some of them made even references to professional secrecy. It's perfect nonsense! Such state of affairs breaks the rights of the victim and other participants in legal proceedings. They have right to be involved in the criminal proceedings and to get particulars about results of the pre-trial investigation. It calls in question the effectiveness of the criminal investigation process.
Zig Ziglar is righ when he says:
"Your attitude is reflection of your character and your character is a reflection of your habits".
"Everything is about the scalability of trust. If people trust you, they will want to do business with you".
I regret that Ukrainian criminal investigators and prosecutors read neither criminalistics textbooks nor Zig Ziglar books. Perhaps that is why Ukrainians have the low level of trust in the law enforcement organs now. Only 1% of Ukrainians have complete trust in the police according to the survey of a public opinion conducted by the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
"You build a successful career, regardless of your field of endeavor, by the dozens of little things you do on and off the job," Ziglar says.
So, friends, read the right books, set and achieve personal and professional goals, build your successful career! It'll be better to see you at the top rather than in court!